Now, a project gearing up at UCLA intends to put computers everywhere you go -- and a lot of places you do not go.

Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have created the Center for Embedded Networked Sensing, which will develop technology that may one day automatically detect and respond to environmental pollutants, conduct microscopic research, run factories, and even monitor how a building is holding up during a natural disaster.

Around the World

"In the long term, embedded networked sensing systems are likely to be in the car you drive to work; in the roads, embankments and traffic lights by which you drive; in the parking structures; in complex environments like hospital rooms; as well as outpatient monitoring setups in the home," said Deborah Estrin, a UCLA professor of computer science who will direct the new center.

"[They'll be] in the workplace in the form of smart spaces," she added, and "certainly in factories monitoring and controlling complex processes; in our waterways and airways and in the ground monitoring pollutants for active detection -- as well as serving longer-term public health studies; and on the farm, monitoring contaminants in food and livestock before they arrive in the supermarket."

Ghost in the Machine

If you have enough trouble programming numbers into your cell phone and getting your laptop to connect to the Internet, you might shudder at the idea of having to work with computer systems everywhere you go and in everything you do.

According to Estrin, however, that scenario is far-fetched. One of the unifying themes of research into embedded computer systems is that the average person will not interact with them directly.

"The average person will be reliant upon and affected by these systems, but if we succeed, the systems will be relatively transparent or invisible," she said. "However, this vision is the Holy Grail, and there is a lot of work to do before we achieve it."

Sensory Perception

The Center for Embedded Networked Sensing is funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, which will provide up to US$40 million over the next decade. NSF has identified it as one of six new science and technology centers to be established in 2002. (continued...)

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